Heat Aims To Break Tradition, Win Pair

MIAMI — P.J. Brown did not need a history lesson or the hard numbers. He is well aware of the cold truth.

"It seems like when things are going good, we don't seem to handle success well,'' the Heat power forward said after Sunday's practice at LaSalle High. "We've somehow got to change that mentality."

Six times in the franchise's 12 seasons the Heat has hosted consecutive playoff games. Only once has it swept the pair. If the pattern continues Tuesday night in Game 2 against the Detroit Pistons, it would eliminate all the positives that came out of Saturday's 95-85 victory in the opener of the best-of-5 series.

"We've had our tough times,'' Brown said. "The last couple of years we haven't been able to close the home court out with the first two games. We all know. We all know that [Saturday's] game doesn't mean anything if we don't take care of business Tuesday night.''

The Heat has had home-court advantage four times it in the postseason; it has won two of those series. In each of the previous two seasons it went 1-1 on its home court to open the first round and lost in five games to the Knicks. "We know what's happened here the last two years, and we've lost either the first or the second game,'' coach Pat Riley said. "Detroit's going to forget about this because they have one more opportunity to do what it is they want to do. We will really focus in on the game plan, focus in on the intensity level in practice and build up to, I hope, the intensity level we had [Saturday]. Our guys left everything they had on the court. And we have to do the same thing on Tuesday.''

Pistons guard Jerry Stackhouse insisted after the opener that the Heat could not improve on its Game 1 effort.

"I thought we played a perfect game,'' Brown said. "But after looking at the film, I think we can play better than we played."

Riley stressed defense during Sunday's video session, focusing on the ease with which the Pistons got to the rim in Game 1.

"They drove the ball 48 times to the basket,'' Riley said. "They didn't convert that many, because we were helping. But they had 32 free-throw attempts. We cannot allow that. We cannot allow them to break us down off the dribble like they did [Saturday], get to the basket. So we have to do a better job Tuesday containing the dribble. It was obvious today we could play better in that area."

Riley said getting his team to play with hunger has been difficult when there hasn't been adversity or pressure.

"I just think it's a natural phenomenon,'' he said. "Even if you'd experienced it before, you just never know the level of desperation that the other team is going to come with."

Brown said he is confounded by how the Heat can make the worst out of the best of times and the best out of the worst of times.

"It's always been that way with us,'' he said. "In the four years I've been here, when somebody's injured or we've lost a couple of games in a row, when we're in a dire need of a win, we've always been able to step up."

In that respect, at least one sense of desperation remains.

Riley said he did not expect point guard Tim Hardaway to play in Game 2. Hardaway was not in much of a mood to discuss the pain in his left foot.

"It's day-to-day,'' he said. "That's all I can say.''

Soon there could be more than injury adversity -- if the Heat allows its history to become its guide.

"We remember all the adverse situations that we've gone through,'' center Alonzo Mourning said, "and because of that, we learn from it and we take those experiences and hope to improve from them.''